Hunting and gathering, circa 1957

The description on YouTube claims that this film was made in 1962; however, according to the fine print in the film itself, it was made in 1957. In any case, if you’re a baby boomer who went grocery shopping with Mom back when you were a young whippersnapper, this will bring back memories. Watch all the way to the end to see how much an average mother paid for a shopping cart full of groceries in 1957 (not for the faint of heart).

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2017 at 9:18 am and is filed under circus of life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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20 Responses to Hunting and gathering, circa 1957

Oh, my gosh. My dad used to do the shopping as he knew meats and my mom didn’t drive. I didn’t have a clue at the time about food prices. $5.63 now sounds unbelievable for two bags of groceries. After living in India all this time I’d probably suffer sticker shock if I moved back to the U.S. and went food shopping. 😀 — Suzanne

Oh my goodness, the memories! Yes, that’s what clothes, hairstyles, cars, and grocery stores looked like in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Only I don’t remember seeing a child size cart in the stores back then.

The total price at the end…. excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor!

I don’t remember any child size carts back then either; the Jewel where my mother shopped certainly didn’t have them. One thing they did have, though, was a large tank full of live lobsters, which I found simultaneously fascinating and revolting when I was a little pipsqueak.

That is definitely 1957, but most women didn’t go shopping in dresses. They usually wore pedal pushers or slacks, like my mom did. At the time that film was made, I was just about the age of the little girl. I remember the cashiers ringing up our purchases. They knew how to count back change. People who grew up with machines that tell you how much change you’re getting back don’t have that skill.

When I was first married, in 1961, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, my budget for a week of food and groceries for two adults was $25.00. It is ten times that amount now and I am still counting the number of green beans that I buy for a meal.